Clearly I am very far behind on my blogging!  I have so so much to catch up on sharing but I do feel crazy blessed to have so much to share too! This session was a few weeks ago at the American Tobacco Campus in Downtown Durham.  I love the industrial and historic brick look in general that this location has!  Congrats congrats to Ashlee and Bradley!  It is such fun to work with friends!  I met Ashlee at our church where we did work together for a while teaching the youth which was such fun.  And shortly before Ashlee emailed me with the exciting news, I watched them one Sunday a few pews up his arm around her and thought... hmmmm, are these two engaged already?!  And my hunch was right!

These two are such a classy set, don't you think?  They both light up with each other's presence.  They are both musically talented with singing and such such intelligent people! Anyway, I had to brag on them a bit.

I so look forward to capturing their beautiful day in May when they will be getting married in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Raleigh Temple.

I just loved the beautiful bold colors Ashley decided to wear! They fit just perfectly with the fun vibe of downtown Durham.







I kept making them move for the perfect spot of light to fall right there to catch a bit of sparkle.


This is the one they used for their invite!






Of all places to have hammocks!  I couldn't resist.  It was quite the entertainment getting in and out of them though!







It was a bit chilly during their shoot but we kept moving!  I had to have Ashlee put this jacket on for a few shots because.... it is the cutest!  And I am a bit in love with that color!














Ok you two!








They would get waffles together regularly after she was done working at the Temple every week and this time he surprised her.  Instead of meeting at their favorite eatery, he surprised her at the Temple grounds and they took a little walk together.  It was peaceful and lovely.  And they will be getting married soon!

Stay tuned for the rest of their love story to come.


http://effervescentmediaworks.com


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Recently we settled our travel plans for this summer, and with it some amazing adventures planned.  My amazing husband Matt put together the details and with both of our travel plans combined we have officially scheduled 100 hours of driving! Crazzy. But I just laughed and said, "can we even sit still for two minutes!"

I am excited about this opportunity to cross the country this summer and with it I have all my travel dates scheduled.

June 2  Monticello National Park  and Charleston, WV
June 3-4 Dayton,OH + Carmel, IN
June 4-5  Chicago
June 6 - Navuoo (West Illinois Area)
June 7 - Omaha, Nebraska
June 8 - Badlands National Park
June 9-10 - Rapid City Area
June 11 - 15 - Fort Collins (North CO Area)
June 16 - 20 St. George, UT
June 21 - July 5 - Salt Lake City
July 7 -  Mountain View, CA
August 1-4 - Salt Lake City and Provo, UT

If I will be in your area, please email for availability and we will set up your session!

effervescentmediaworks@gmail.com

Anyway, this a #TBT post from one of our adventures from last summer, where my mountain climbing husband brought, me, the not as fit wife of his to climb Mt. Elbert with him.  Can't help to not think that is sounds like a Sesame Street character more than a name for a mountain but that is just me.  It is the tallest mountain in Colorado, so that's cool.  Anyway... I only cried twice!  The climb up was doable with at least a dozen stops and taking a lot of pictures, but climbing down! Yikes a bee! Not a fan of heights.  Especially this area of the mountain with a lot of looser rock and it just kept going and going!  I had to take my time, but as I did some obviously well traveled climbers passed us and were literally running down the mountain... rocks rolling about and rolling down the mountainside.  Reckless!  Can I say... mountain goats!  Oh, wait, mountain goats are smarter than that! Lol.

There is something about being up on a mountain that is just food for the soul.  It is so peaceful and everything else that seems to keep us so busy each day and those things that seem so important but aren't really as important as other things... just fall away and the breeze blows and nature ambiance chimes through the trees.  While it is not laying on the beach, it is a true vacation in the sense of getting away from it all and breathing in fresh mountain air.  And speaking of scents, why is it that I have not come across the perfect sap smell candle?  Have you?  Every time I go hiking, I love finding the perfect tree and smelling the sap.  I am a closet sap sniffer.  I admit it.

 Driving through Leadville, CO.  I love little towns like this that are full of character and color and of course history. We just drove through for this portion of our trip, but I do like to stop at local cafe's and the occasional antique shop for fun.
Enthused and feeling legit.  It is really more convenient to just have you hiking sticks out, even on a flat trail so I just felt funny using them, but come the rough terrain I could not have done without them. 


And good morning!  What a peaceful surrounding to wake up to!

When I see something like this I have to stop and take a picture, I love the way weather forms the wood to be smoothed out into a work of its own natural art. It is just naturally beautiful.







Mount Elbert is at: 14,439 ft.  Surprised I didn't pass out! Likely would not have made it if I did not have time to adjust and take my time.  Matt was very patient. Plus, I wanted to stop and take pictures of just about every flower.  When they are gently swaying in the mountain top breezed and clinging to those cracks in between the rocks, that is such as beautiful imagery to me.  Blossoming in life despite the strong opposition of its challenges.







This is a look down part of the mountain and this photo does not do it justice of how steep it really was.  The perspective is hard to realize but a crazy test on my vertigo. And having rocks roll about your feet as you stepped was difficult. I didn't mind the company of my amazing husband for the challenge though!

Spring is here! And with it Graduation.  And to commemorate this special time, what better way to than with graduation portraits.  I will take pictures of you with and without your gown so you may have some new beautiful head shots for future professional use and for that proud parent or grandparent of yours.

These portrait mini sessions are $100 and include 30 minutes, 30-60 edited images, an online gallery to download images and order prints if you like.  A custom USB is an additional $25.

If you book by the 23rd of March you will receive %20 off!

So if you are located here in the Triangle going to school at Duke , UNC, NCSU  or another nearby school contact me for your headshot/ portrait session: effervescentmediaworks@gmail.com

(Below) And ... the random dude on Duke Campus that wanted to be famous! I told him I would post this ;)






I will work with you and your personality type to capture the kinds of portraits you will want to display.

This happens ALL the time!  I fall so very behind in blogging as well, I am more preoccupied with simply getting my clients pictures out the door!  That is a good thing, but I have so so many adventures to share!  Especially from over the summer of 2015.

Over the course of last summer my husband was in Indianapolis on an internship and I brought the kids to come visit him for about a week or so of that time.  While there we had our own grand adventures in the city and a visit to the nationally recognized Children's Museum.

The more buttons, gizzmo's and gadgets available for my little ones to be excited about the better.  I am going to dive full onto our adventures there here, but if you are into crafting, party planning for your kids, and basically all other things creative as a young bride or mom, feel free to check out my brand new blog devoted more specifically to these things. You can check it out at http://phoenixnfeathers.com

What are some of your favorite places to travel to as a family? Tell me in the comments below!

And moms!  I have started a very fun project on Youtube, check out my new channels just for moms here.